Measures unveiled in the Budget yesterday to help more people on to the property ladder are following the lead set in Scotland, the Scottish Government said.

The Chancellor announced that from April key workers, such as teachers and nurses, and first-time buyers, would be able to buy just 50% of a property through shared equity schemes, rather than the current lower limit of 75%.

At the same time, he said people buying a property through a shared ownership scheme would not be liable for stamp duty until they owned at least 80% of their home.

Mr Darling said around 95,000 people had already got on to the property ladder through shared ownership and shared equity schemes, and the UK Government planned to spend a further £8bn to "enable the Housing Corporation to deliver 70,000 new affordable homes each year by 2010/11".

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Alistair Darling's announcement appears to follow our model, by allowing applicants flexibility to take out a smaller equity stake than was previously possible, to make the English schemes more attractive.

"Here in Scotland, applicants to the LIFT Shared Equity schemes can already take out flexible equity stakes, typically ranging from 60-80%, but as low as 51% to reflect different affordability needs.

"The Communities Minister, Stewart Maxwell, recently announced the extension of the Open Market version of our LIFT Shared Equity scheme to six new areas: Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray, Highland, Stirling and Perth & Kinross, in addition to Edinburgh and the Lothians."

Alongside his Budget, the Chancellor launched a consultation on how to encourage lenders to develop more affordable and flexible long-term mortgages.

A working group would be looking at ways to boost the wholesale money markets which have effectively dried up in the wake of the global credit crunch.

The government is keen to encourage certain borrowers to take out long-term fixed-rate mortgages for 10, 20 and even 25 years, which it feels would provide greater security and certainty of repayments for some homeowners.

But while a handful of providers in the UK offer the deals, take-up is generally low, with just 3.1% of mortgages taken out in August fixed for more than five years.

The government said one of the reasons for this was the high redemption charges borrowers are generally hit with if they exit one of the deals early.

It said this was generally because lenders funded these mortgages with long-term fixed rate funding, which left them facing a cost if borrowers pull out.

The government is consulting on ways to help lenders better manage this risk.

It is also looking at encouraging other innovative products, such as insurance against big interest rate rises.

The government also announced a consultation on ways to improve the liquidity in the mortgage-backed securities market.

It wants the industry to develop a "gold standard" market for mortgage-backed securities to allow lenders to sell on mortgages and free up capital.

It hopes that the move would also broaden the base of investors who bought these securities, strengthening the mortgage market in the long term.

A working group representing the mortgage and investment industries, the Treasury, Financial Services Authority and Bank of England will decide on how to prescribe this "gold standard".

The Chancellor will also make available £26m for the Green Homes Service next year to help cut carbon emissions and fuel bills.